the stream, would take a much longer time. At
Assouan he could seek out this man, Baring Hartley.

But she had suggested that!

How entirely he distrusted this woman!

Mrs. Armine and he were linked by their dislike. He had known they might
be when he met her in London. To-day he knew that they were. It seemed
to him that he read her with an ease and a certainty that were not
natural. And he knew that with equal ease and certainty she read him.
Their dislike was as a sheet of flawless glass through which each looked
upon the other.

He picked up the field-glass again, and held it to his eyes.

The felucca was close to the _Loulia_ now. And the doll upon the balcony
was once more moving by the rail.

He was certain this doll was Mrs. Armine, and that she was restless for
his answer.

The tiny boat joined the dahabeeyah, seemed to become one with it. The
doll moved and disappeared. Isaacson put down the glass.

In his note to Mrs. Armine, the note she was reading at that moment, he
had politely accepted her decision, and written that he would look out
for them at Assouan. He had written nothing about Doctor Hartley,
nothing in answer to her postscript. His note had been shorter than
hers, rather careless and perfunctory. He had intended, when he was
writing it, to convey to her the impression that the whole matter was a
trifle and that he took it lightly. But he, too, had put his postscript.
And this was it:

"P.S. I look forward to a real acquaintance with you at Assouan."

And now, if he gave the word to the Reis to untie, to pole off, to get
out the huge oars, and to cross to the western bank of the river! Soon
they would be level with the _Loulia_. A little later the _Loulia_ would
lie behind them. A little later still, and she would be out of their
sight.

"God knows when they'll be at Assouan!"

Isaacson found himself saying that. And he felt as if, as soon as the
_Fatma_ rounded the bend of the Nile and crept out of sight on her slow
way southwards, the _Loulia_ would untie and drop down towards the
north. He felt it? He knew it as if he had seen it happen.

"Hassan!"

When Hassan answered, Isaacson bade him tell the Reis that he and his
men could rest all the afternoon.

"I'm going to Edfou again. I shall probably spend some hours in the
temple."

"Him very fine temple."

"Yes. I shall go alone and on foot."

A few minutes later he set out. He gained the temple, and stayed in it a
long tim